About # 774, the shelves laden by Nicholas Blincoe.

I liked this story, the streamlined narrative, and the idea of a third culture as observer, arbiter and player, inevitably drawn in to take one side or the other in that most divisive of situations, Israel-Palestine, which has at once brought the characters together and created a gulf between them. Also nice that a Jerusalem story produced a Jerusalem story.

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I really enjoyed 'tight lips' by Matias Viegener from last night, so tonight I went back and found, 'and they look at you' another really fine piece of writing. And now I know what a Palestinian Sunbird is, which is also a great pleasure.

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1001 nights cast
London Discussion

Recording and transcript from the recent discussion held at Live Art Development Agency, London with Barbara Campbell, Adrian Heathfield, Sara Jane Bailes, Tony White, Lara Pawson and some of the other Europe-based project writers can be accessed here.

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Just catching up on a couple of weeks of reading my way through the archive. So much good writing! I love the way different stories set up a conversation - in this instance I'm thinking of Danielle Wood and Jess Gabriel - with Ann Stephen's in the middle...

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I read in newspapers about the hole blasted into separation wall in Gaza and people walking through it into Egypt.I read about families allowed in to eat and buy olive oil matresses computers tyres car batteries + I study the rare pictures of Palestinian children smiling as they squeeze between the flattened slabs of concerete. This news feels like light sun breath here in the grey rain of this Thursday morning in UK.

It is literally a "concrete" story...there's a lot of cement in this narrative of boundaries.

1001 nights with its newspaper prompts from a world spinning like a car crash (or the five seconds just before the crash) seems to me to have tapped into a panicked global inner geography where the wall lurks like a depression inside us all-(it might be built across Palestine but we feel it in Sydney, Rome, Calcutta) and then suddenly one day (Thurs 24th Jan 2008) I read there's a hole in the wall and on the other side is Egypt...or another view anyway.

I think your prompts made a hole in the wall of this barrage of world news and through it we see 1001 views.

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Thank you Barbara, that was a great performance. Uplifting to hear that your 'Mr Smith' is making this stand, I hope our labour government has the sensibility to do the same. Their policies always seem to be half full these days. Nice story Stephen.

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